Paige Ruschhaupt

University of Houston-Victoria graduate student Paige Ruschhaupt is taking a big step next year after serving on the university�s Student Senate for the first time this spring semester.

She recently was elected Student Senate president for the 2010-11 school year, the first year UHV will admit freshmen and sophomores.

�When they first told me about all the meetings and events I would have to attend and speeches I would have to give, I was a little overwhelmed,� she said. �But now I�m really excited because I know people are counting on me. It�s really humbling. And with the help of advisor Janet Foerster and my fellow senators, I see our Senate doing lots of good things for UHV during this upcoming year.�

Ruschhaupt served as the graduate senator for the School of Arts & Sciences during the spring semester. She graduated from UHV in December with a bachelor�s degree in psychology and now is pursuing dual master�s degrees in school psychology and counseling.

�When I was an undergraduate at UHV, I wasn�t really involved in the school,� Ruschhaupt said. �I made good grades, and I graduated. But when I entered graduate school, I decided to join the Senate. Now I feel like I�m part of an organization - a community - and it has been a rewarding experience. I really wanted to be president because I want the incoming sophomores and freshmen to have a positive university experience. UHV is going through a tremendous change, and I want to be there to help and to be the voice of our student body during this change.�

Helping others has been an important goal in Ruschhaupt�s life. It�s the reason she chose to study psychology and why she enjoys her job as the lead peer writing tutor in UHV�s Academic Center.

�Sometimes it can be challenging working with students and trying to help them understand what they need to do to become better writers,� she said. �But overall, it�s very rewarding when you see the student gets it and understands. We get a lot of feedback from students saying �thank you� and about what they have learned. That makes it worth it.�

Ruschhaupt, a Victoria resident, started as a writing tutor at the Academic Center in spring 2008 and became the lead tutor in the fall. She is a member of Psi Chi, the honors society for psychology students, and would like to be a counselor at a mental health facility when she graduates.

�I've been interested in psychology since I took my first basic course as an undergraduate,� she said. �It was very interesting to learn how you could read a person�s feelings just by their body language. Now I�ll get to work with people suffering from depression and other problems, and I'll get to help them through it. For me, it's always been about helping people.�

The UHV Outstanding Student is an online feature highlighting the exceptional students who attend the University of Houston-Victoria. To nominate a student, contact UHV Communications Manager Paula Cobler  or call 361-570-4350.